Enlightened Feudalism: Seigneurial Justice and Village Society in Eighteenth-Century Northern Burgundy

by Jeremy Hayhoe

Thousands of seigneurial courts covered the French countryside in the early modern era. By the eighteenth century these courts were subject to mounting criticism, as Enlightenment concerns about rationality and standardization combined with older absolutist worries that lords' ownership of justice weakened the king's authority. Although the courts were abolished in 1789, this criticism persisted, with historians traditionally portraying them as marginal...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580462715
• ISBN13: 9781580462716
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: University of Rochester Press
• Length: 321 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"